00:05 - Simon Order (Host)

Welcome to this episode of the Enabled Podcast. I'm your host, Simon Order. Great to have you company. On the Enabled podcast we talk all things, all abilities, inclusion, diversity and, the most important thing, accessibility. Our goal is to bring you the stories of lived experience, the amazing projects, the trials, the tribulations and much more from the all abilities enabled community. The Enabled podcast is brought to you by the Ability Heroes organisation. On this episode, Adam Hewber, the CEO of Ability Heroes, chats with the honourable Stephen Dawson, the West Australian Minister for Emergency Services, innovation, the Digital Economy, science and Medical Research. Adam sat down with Stephen Dawson at his ministerial office in Perth and asked some questions about inclusion, accessibility, technology and the emergency services. How is the government leveraging technological innovation to enhance accessibility and emergency services for people living with disabilities across Western Australia?

01:26 - Stephen Dawson (MLC)

Look, it's really important for me as Minister for Innovation and the Digital Economy, but also for Minister for Emergency Services, to ensure that everybody can access the work that we are doing. Digital inclusion really is economic inclusion, and so it's important that wherever you are across Western Australia, or whoever you are across Western Australia, that you can access the services that we provide. So it's certainly a priority that all Western Australians can share in the benefits of being connected and not be excluded or left behind from what is an increasingly digital world. So we're doing a range of things. We have launched our digital strategy, which does shift us away from a government focus and really does put people, businesses and the community at the centre of what we're doing, and so our strategy sets out our commitment to providing convenient but also secure online services, which is driven by quality data insights.

Then, if I touch on the Department of Fire and Emergency Services, or DFES, we have, I guess, had a focus on ensuring that we're doing things much better, much more accessibly, and so you'll see if we've got a bushfire now.  You'll see Fiona signing in the corner, so that people who are hard of hearing or deaf can actually access and can know what's going on in the community. So, too, with our next generation warnings project. We're investing in that at the moment, and it's an exciting project that will be a world-class warning system so that people right across the state will get access to more, faster information, more targeted information and personalised emergency information, and so at the moment, we are consulting on that and DFES have been speaking with people with disability right across the state to work out exactly what they would like in this next generation warning system, because, as we see a continuing change in climate, we're seeing more fires, floods more often. It's really important that our messaging to the community is up to date, gets to them as quickly as possible and that it gets to everybody who might need it, including people with disability.

03:32 - Adam Hewber (Founder of Ability Heroes)

Could you highlight any specific initiatives or projects aimed at bridging the gap between emergency services and individuals with disabilities, ensuring their safety and well-being during a crisis or disaster?

03:48 - Stephen Dawson (MLC)

Sure. Well, there are two initiatives that we're doing that's aimed at bridging the gap, and the first being one of the latest services available on the Service WA app, which is emergency WA and the Service WA app hopefully, if downloaded previously Adam, I'll have to check it out. You better check it later so that provides warnings but also boundaries from emergency WA, and it offers another way for Western Australians to stay up to date and to be informed on bushfire safety, and so if you are a Service WA app user who has enabled a service, then, based on your current location, you will get notifications directly to your mobile device that includes a warning level location and a link to emergency WA with the most up to date safety information, and you'll also receive a message in your service WA inbox. We are, as a state government the Cook government really is committed to inclusivity, so that's why the service undergoes regular and rigorous accessibility audits to make sure they are actually championed by people with disability, and that's to make sure that what we're doing actually works, actually having people with disability telling us what's needed, what doesn't work. I've always found people with disability very generous in telling me their views and giving me their feedback, and so that has been really important. We want to ensure that everybody, regardless of their ability, regardless of where they are again can access the tool and can benefit from the tool.

And then the other thing I want to maybe mention is the My Bush Fire Plan app. That's an app you can download on your phone in less than 15 minutes. You can actually work through what you would do if a bush fire took hold in your locality. People think bush fires only happen in the bush in the regions, but of course that's not the case. This summer we've seen fires in Tapping, in Wanneroo, we've seen fires in Piara Waters and we've seen fires right across the state. So my bush fire app plan asks you some questions and really it just helps. You have a plan. So if there was a fire in your locality, then you'd think about where you'd go, you'd think about the things you need to bring with you, things like your passports, maybe grandma's jewellery or whatever, and so it really does put you in a good place.

And then the last thing we're doing, or another thing that we are doing that I want to highlight, is our innovative hackathons that we've started recently. DFES last year, brought together about 100 participants from a range of different industries, and the idea was to leverage the participants expertise on how the government could better use generative artificial intelligence to tailor and to solve complex emergency information problems, including how we might be able to tailor support to individual people based on their circumstances. And so the hackathon teams investigated how AI could be put to use to better provide information to people who are vision and or hearing impaired, and we've got some really good innovative solutions. We also had some people who were neurodiverse involved in the hackathons really smart people with huge brains who were able to kind of use their smarts to say, actually you know what she did. This way and this technology would actually help people with disability. There's one company who was the winning team, ‘firetrail’, who has been working with DFES at the emergency services complex in Cockburn and the personnel down there about using their smarts and their idea and putting it into practical applications, so it's quite exciting.

07:12 - Simon Order (Host)

Just a reminder this podcast is brought to you by the Ability Heroes Organisation.

07:20 - Adam Hewber (Founder of Ability Heroes)

How does the government collaborate with disability advocacy groups and communities to ensure that emergency response systems and digital services are inclusive and catered to diverse needs?

07:35 - Stephen Dawson (MLC)

As you know, I was the Minister for Disability Services for the first four years in the Labour Government. I really enjoyed the job and I've been able to keep some good friends from that sector and include them in my other portfolios as I move on. But digital inclusion really is everybody's responsibility and as our sectors move into a time that really is rapid in terms of digital transformation, it is really important in fact, it's vital that all Western Australians actually have access and equal opportunity to benefit and can play a role in shaping the digital economy of the future. As a state government, we recognise the profound impact that collaboration can have on enticing digital inclusion outcomes in our state and how critically important it is that we really do listen to those who are essentially underrepresented community groups, including people with disabilities. So DFES advocates for planning and preparation for an emergency before it occurs, especially for people who are at higher risk and those who do have additional support needs. Of course there are many, whether they are people with disability or indeed people who are older in our community. It's really important that whatever plan we put into place, we do take into consideration how these groups will be impacted by them.

We continue to work with academics but also practitioners, local governments, to promote person centred emergency preparedness.

We're working with two local governments who have hosted disability inclusive emergency preparedness forums with service providers and community members and that has been working really well and caught up just before Christmas with one of the players in that who has been involved in those consultations for people with disabilities and they said it was really beneficial because again, hearing from people with disability about how it might be impacted, the challenges, the extra challenges that you might face if you've got a disability when there's a fire approaching or whatever, it really has been positive.

And there's several emergency services. Staff and volunteers have now completed the person-centred emergency preparedness facilitated training and they are involved in the community of practice with the Impact Centre for Disability Research and Policy at the University of Sydney. So we're going to keep going with this and ensure more people are trained but also understand the difficulties and challenges and probably opportunities from helping people with disability get away from fires or floods. But we've also, through our digital inclusion in WA blueprint, been working with people with disability and advocates to ensure that we're aware of what is needed and that we're always conscious of the voices of people with disability in any policy decisions that are made.

10:21 - Adam Hewber (Founder of Ability Heroes)

What measures have been taken to ensure the emerging technologies are accessible and user-friendly for individuals with various disabilities, thus promoting inclusion in the digital landscape.

10:35 - Stephen Dawson (MLC)

Well, as I mentioned, the consultation phase of the Next Gen program has included conversations with people with disability, their families, their carers, about how they would like to receive information about floods and fires in the future, and as we develop what we think will be a world-class emergency warnings platform, the consultation will ensure that all warnings are suitable for, but also tailored for, people with disability and others in our community. We've also begun developing our emergency services digital strategy. DFES has and that seeks to better integrate and connect the digital technologies that are available across all agencies that are operating in the emergency services domain, and this project has a user-friendly focus to ensure that all the agencies that are involved maintain inclusion and accessibility at the forefront of all the strategic digital work that they're doing, and so to ensure that emerging technologies and digital solutions are easily accessible, the Office of Digital Government that sits under me at DPC conducts accessibility audits across all of its digital platforms, including key services such as wa.gov. au and service wa and people wa, and these audits then ensure that we are actually meeting the strict criteria that is needed to ensure that we are enhancing accessibility for people with disability.

Regular assessments take place, and they're really crucial because we do have a reasonable turnover in government and just because it's working today and there's a great person running it today, they move off near a job elsewhere. So it's really important that we do this regular kind of auditing. But we've worked with outside stakeholders to make sure that our sites are truly accessible for people with a range of disabilities, and so that's quite exciting stuff. It's only kind of really taken off in the last couple of years. I think it's really beneficial. And also then Dgov sponsors the Australian Access Awards and that just embodies our commitment to ensuring that people with disability can participate.

12:40 - Adam Hewber (Founder of Ability Heroes)

Can you share examples of successful emergency services that have significantly improved accessibility for people with disabilities in Western Australia?

12:50 - Stephen Dawson (MLC)

Yeah, look, one thing so we do in WA is we really rely on volunteers for our emergency services. So we have about 1200 career firefighters and we have about 28 000 volunteers who look after fires, floods, respond to fires, floods around the state. So it's quite extraordinary. It tends to be in the metro area that we have the career fire stations, because they're fully staffed 24 hours a day, and then in the outer metro and in the regions we tend to have volunteer stations and the state provides them with equipment, vehicles, fire stations, personal protective clothing and stuff. But what we do have is a volunteer hub at DFES and it does enable people with disability to participate. You don't have to be out there climbing a ladder to put out a fire, but we do rely on people to answer phones, people to be on computers, people to do monitoring, and so there's a range of opportunities that exist for people with disability to actually volunteer and what tends to happen from our volunteers is they tend to have a better chance of actually taking on one of the jobs in the agency.

Not every person with disability, but many people with disability, I guess, struggle to engage with the community and actually getting these really crucial volunteering opportunities the same as anybody else would.

A - get your friends, get your family, get you out of the house, get your new experiences, but also,  get you, I guess, the you know the sense of feeling and worth that comes with you know, saving someone from a fire or someone who's boat has drifted out to sea or whatever, and so we really do encourage people with disability and others to participate as volunteers.

And then the other thing that is good that we're doing and we're doing it with the West Australian Council of Social Services, or WACOS is the Digital Inclusion Project, so another really good example of improving accessibility and inclusivity through collaboration, and so the project involves leaders in the community services sector, but also peak bodies, the state government and digital partners like NBN, and Work Ventures, and then Lottery West and Major Supporter of them, and what it's about is really about addressing the key barriers of ability, access and affordability, and it seeks to uplift the digital literacy of people in our community and make sure that frontline community service workers in particular, can use online services more safely and effectively, because they are really the people who many have face-to-face contact with going forward, and then the intention is not only that those community service workers are skilled but that they're able to work with the people that they're visiting, helping to ensure that they're actually able to access government services or support digitally as well.

15:31

So there's a few things happening across government. Certainly, that inclusion stuff is really important to me, given my background, and so if anyone ever has ideas about more things we could or should be doing, certainly welcome their feedback.

15:43 - Adam Hewber (Founder of Ability Heroes)

I think the community engagement thing is a big thing which is really cool and which is really good to see.

15:52 - Stephen Dawson (MLC) (Host)

It's not rocket science, but some of these things take a long time. You know, government is very slow at innovation. Now I'm the Minister for Innovation as well, and so I'm kind of hoping and helping drive agencies to say hey, you know what? We don't have all the answers. Why don't we talk to people? Why don't we talk to people that we want to provide services to, about the services they want, and that includes people with disability. And guess what? You ask for feedback. People give it. You can change your services and ends up in a better world. So it's a win-win for everybody.

16:22 - Adam Hewber (Founder of Ability Heroes) (Host)

Thank you, minister Dawson, for taking the time to record this Ability Heroes Enabled podcast.

16:33 - Simon Order (Host)

On this episode of the Enabled podcast, you heard Adam Hewber, the CEO of Ability Heroes, chatting with the Honourable Stephen Dawson, the West Australian Minister for Emergency Services. You heard about the steps the WA government is making to ensure nobody is left behind in case of fires, floods or other emergencies. Many thanks to Stephen Dawson for his time and energy in this space and, of course, thanks to our very own Adam Hewber, who continues to be a voice for the all abilities community. Just a reminder this podcast is brought to you by the Ability Heroes organisation. Have a great week.